I’m a bit of a Titanic buff. I’ve read tons of books about it. It all started in the 8th grade when my advanced English class did a unit about it forI’m a bit of a Titanic buff. I’ve read tons of books about it. It all started in the 8th grade when my advanced English class did a unit about it for no reason I can discern. But I was fascinated, we all were, and that was just about the time that the wreck was discovered by Robert Ballard. And ever since, the Titaniacs (as they’re apparently called), both amateur and professional, have been arguing over how the ship broke up, what sunk it, why did it sink so fast, yadda yadda. When That Movie came out in 1997, Cameron’s depiction of the sinking (a high-angle break, big drama) was reflective of the best theory of the time. But that theory’s been cast into some doubt, largely because of the work described in this book which was done by the two wreck divers whose previous exploits were published in the Shadow Divers books and chronicled on TV on “Deep Sea Detectives.”

Their theory is that weaknesses in the hull caused by newly-designed expansion joints made the ship break in two at a much lower angle than the 45 degrees we tend to think of, as little as 11 degrees, which means the sinking would have occurred extremely fast when the ship was still pretty close to horizontal. Huge pieces of the bottom of the ship (which the divers found among the wreckage) ripped away and the whole thing flooded like gangbusters, taking most people on board by surprise. It’s a much more horrible situation than a high-angle break, wherein everyone could see what was happening.

The book is surprisingly heavy on history, but it’s a section of the ship’s history one doesn’t often see chronicled: its building and the politics around it, and the men who made it possible. I was fascinated by this although not everybody would be. I’d say only 40% of the book was about the current work and the dives to the wreck, and then the investigation. Most of it was history. Relatively little time is spent on the Titanic’s voyage and sinking (we know this ground pretty well already).

I love a book I can read in a day. I love it when I have a day that I can just devote to reading. Not terribly common these days. So thanks for the quick, interesting read, guys....more

This was truly a one-sittting book, or anyway a one-lying-down book, since I read it in bed. It was so short and quick that once I’d gotten 1/4 of theThis was truly a one-sittting book, or anyway a one-lying-down book, since I read it in bed. It was so short and quick that once I’d gotten 1/4 of the way through it I knew I just had to finish it. It moves fast and is compelling enough to pull you through to the end in a couple of hours.

It is a simple microcosmal tale of Edward and Florence, eight hours’ married in 1962, both of then anxious about their upcoming wedding night since both are virgins. Edward is eagerly anticipating it, but Florence is dreading it since the whole idea of physical intimacy disgusts her despite her real love for Edward. The book sits lightly with them as they try to eat dinner and finally transition to the bedroom, then jumps back to how they met, their courtship, their individual childhoods and the events that brought them here.

This story is tragic and sad, because we as readers (especially with a modern perspective) can so clearly see how Edward and Florence are going wrong and we want so badly for them to find each other, but will they? You want to reach through the pages and shake them, urge them to say this or that and if they do or do not follow our advice, we’re helpless, just as helpless as they are.

The book is simply written but artful and things are very clear. There are a couple of veiled references to possibly trauma in Florence’s past that have given her this horror of physical intimacy, but she doesn’t see it, and in 1962…well, I don’t have to draw you a map....more

I was considering a moratorium on books that have those "Book Club Questions" printed in the back. But then I remembered that The Secret History by DoI was considering a moratorium on books that have those "Book Club Questions" printed in the back. But then I remembered that The Secret History by Donna Tartt, a masterpiece and one of my favorite books, had them, too. Perhaps the type of question ought to be the deciding factor. The Tartt questions were deep literary analysis, as opposed to the sort of questions you might find in the short-answer section of an eighth grade English test.

This book is the print equivalent of a Lifetime Movie of the Week. No, that might be an insult to the good people of the Lifetime Television Network. It's bargain-basement Jodi Picoult (although there are those who might contend that Picoult herself is the bargain-basement version). It zipped through my visual cortex and skimmed across the surface of my consciousness leaving so little impact that in a week I will probably have forgotten that I read it (which I did in one evening).

Hailing from that perennial book-club favorite genre of Dysfunction Porn, this book is about fallen Golden Girl Allison, a 21 year old parolee just released from prison after having been convicted of A Terrible Crime. And yes, Gudenkauf spends the first seventy pages or so playing that "Let's keep referring to the Terrible Crime and its consequences without actually saying what the Terrible Crime was, because that's the only way I know how to hold your interest." I thought, dear God, please let this not be drug out for the whole book, which it isn't, but information about the crime in question is (predictably) distributed piecemeal, in dribs and drabs, as Allison deals with the Central Casting characters around her: her formerly pushy parents who've disowned her, her traumatized sister who won't speak to her, her tough-as-nails lawyer, the kindly halfway house owner, the Earth Mother bookstore owner. A token effort to give these people some personality has been made but no one has any resonance as a real person.

Another issue I had with it is the level of mother-baby-child worship that was present, which to me seemed excessive. It almost bordered on fetishization. That could just be my perspective; I'm the least maternal woman ever so I don't really get that, but this book was so fixated on babies and children and adults, even teenagers, and their obsessive devotion to them that it was a little icky to me.

The book is written from several points of view and every time she switches, Gudenkauf feels it necessary to start a new chapter (instead of just inserting a section break) resulting in a million tiny-ass chapters, some less than a full page, each one headed with the name of the person whose point of view we're enjoying. Claire! Brynn! Allison! It's point-of-view via Mouseketeer roll-call.

And golly gee, things build to a climax. Gee whillickers, a bit character zooms in to set things into motion. Oh my goodness, there's are Echoes of Past Trauma being replayed before our eyes. This might as well be a paint-by-numbers. I cared about no one and nothing in this book.

I'm giving it two stars purely because I reserve the one-star rating for books I actively dislike, in other words, books that engender a negative emotional response. This one simply engendered no response at all....more

I loved this book. Full stop. Loved. It. My initial reaction, that it's just like Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, was echoed right there on the jackeI loved this book. Full stop. Loved. It. My initial reaction, that it's just like Laura Ingalls Wilder for adults, was echoed right there on the jacket blurb (which I had failed to notice before beginning).

Caveat: I have not read Walls' famous memoir The Glass Castle. I understand that it's largely about how dysfunctional and neglectful her mother and father were. Walls started out intending to write this book about her mother's childhood on a ranch, but ended up writing about her grandmother, Lily Casey Smith, a remarkable character. Spending early childhood living in a dugout house on a river in Texas, at fifteen she rode 500 miles to take her first teaching job. She took herself off to Chicago on her own to get a diploma, returned to take more teaching jobs, broke horses, and with her husband ran a 160,000 ranch, where their two children were born.

Walls describes the book as a "true life novel." She has gathered information about her grandmother's life (she died when Walls was eight) from family oral history and discovered that most of it was corroborated by other sources, but where it conflicted, she went with the oral history. She writes the book first-person in her grandmother's voice, and what emerges is an intriguingly intimate account of this woman's life. Some things are gone into in detail, others are skimmed over, as it is with memory and stories told about the past. The life Lily led is itself fascinating enough. She is a complex narrator, resourceful and independent, but with flaws. She is severe and even cold with her children, pragmatic to the point of being mercenary, and short-tempered. I'm guessing most people found her intimidating, difficult and forbidding, but I found myself wishing I could have met her myself....more